So Gary Sheffield is calling it quits. Had he not played for the Tigers, I wouldn’t give this much thought, but he did, so I do. That’s because there’s been no other Tigers player in my lifetime that has left me wanting more than Sheff. Sure it would’ve been nice to see something, anything from the likes of Edgar Renteria, Juan Gonzalez or Fernando Vina, but Gary Sheffield was a superstar at just about every stop in his career — and he was bringing his act to Detroit. This was a once-in-a-generation opportunity. But a collision with Placido Polanco in July 2007 essentially ended what was shaping up to be a Sheff-like season: .265, 25 home runs and 75 RBI over 133 games. His…
Well, no Tigers player won a Gold Glove this season, though some held out hope that Austin Jackson might’ve come away with some hardware. His day will come, I’m sure. Let’s look back at the Gold Glove winners in franchise history: 1957 Al Kaline OF 1958 Frank Bolling 2B Al Kaline OF 1959 Al Kaline OF 1961 Al Kaline OF Frank Lary P 1962 Al Kaline OF
No Tigers baseball for a week, how are you managing? Here in Phoenix we’re prepping for another season of Arizona Fall League action. (More on that later.) In the meantime, here are some odds and ends from the last week: If you’re still coming to grips with the notion of Brandon Inge and Jhonny Peralta manning the left side of the Tigers’ infield next season, here’s something I noticed that will either make you feel better or worse – and nowhere in between. Based on this year’s stats, it appears that Inge and Peralta are practically twins: 2010 Stats Inge Peralta Games 144 148 At bats 514 551 Hits 127 137 Home Runs 13 15 RBI 70 81 Average .247 .249 On-base Percentage .321…
Not sure if this makes the postseason more or less interesting to you, but if you watch each league’s division series you’ll likely to see lots of former Tigers: Yankees Curtis Granderson Marcus Thames Rays Carlos Pena Matt Joyce Gabe Kapler Rangers Matt Treanor Colby Lewis Giants Aubrey Huff Edgar Renteria Cody Ross Andres Torres Braves Kyle Farnsworth Jair Jurrjens Omar Infante Phillies Placido Polanco Chad Durbin
Now that we’re in the final month of the season I suppose it’s time to call myself out on some declarations, predictions and general comments I made earlier this season that amounted to a whole lot of nothin’. In no particular order… Brandon Inge. I owned up to this one on the podcast with Ian earlier this week. At the start of the season I proclaimed that if Inge could just hit .250, I’d be delighted. After a cold start, he’s been hitting around — and over — .250 for most of the season. Starting play tonight Inge is hitting .255. So I need to stop my complaining about his shortcomings. 86 Wins. Was I nuts to think that a Tigers team with two…
